The present invention relates to conveyor systems for handling individual slices, stacks or shingles of slices of meat or meat products or other sticky, soft, or crumbly foodstuffs which need to be conveyed positively and which cannot be pushed by kerbs or guides and made to slide over the surface of a belt conveyor. It is particularly concerned with a system for changing the number of streams of products being conveyed along a flow line. There is a requirement both to combine two or more separate streams into one output stream and to multiply the two or more streams into three or more output streams.
Conventional conveyor systems for changing the number of streams of product usually include a simple flat belt conveyor and a series of fixed kerbs or belt conveyors operating in a vertical plane which guide the products in the lateral direction of the belt conveyor to merge two streams into one or to multiply the number of streams. Examples of these conventional conveying systems are described in FR-A- 2587007 and FR-A-2168967.
Conventional systems that have been provided specifically for handling slices of meat or meat products include U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,104 in which three successive products from a stream coming from one direction are fed to a turning table on which the direction of conveyance of the products is turned through 90.degree., so that, at the output of the turning table the three successive products form three separate streams of product on an output conveyor. The turning table is formed by intercallated belts and rollers which, by relatively raising and lowering them with respect to each other, make it possible to either convey the products in the one direction, or in a direction at 90.degree. to the one direction and so turn the products through 90.degree.. Another prior conveyor system specifically intended to handle slices of meat and meat products is shown in GB-A- 1546126 in which a single stream of product is fed via an overhead conveyor and placed on top of pieces of card fed along a second conveyor underneath the overhead conveyor with means being provided to synchronise the travel of the product and the card so that the product is deposited on the card.